There also were issues with other details he provided, including how the victims were bound and whether the boys were raped. Hobbs was Branch's stepfather. That included Mojo, who came calling around 2 a.m. that day trying to coax him out of his cell. Rather, they were fighting for something they believed in. Minutes later, Sgt. Case Details Parties . Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. The footage included raw jailhouse interviews with the defendants, strategy sessions held by legal teams on both sides, and extended monologues from Mark Byers, the tall, goateed stepfather of one of the victims, who spoke as though he were reciting the Book of Revelation and who, at one point in Paradise Lost, fired a handgun at a pumpkin while reciting the names of the accused. View Source Suggest Edits Memorial Photos Flowers Created by: Legend Added: 11 Aug 2021 Find a Grave Memorial ID: 230642037 As detailed by The Hollywood Reporter in 2011, Jackson and Walsh helped fund key investigations for the West Memphis Three's defense during the last seven years of their incarceration. What a story it is. The idea of the average citizen becoming embroiled in a criminal investigation isnt far-fetched in 2021, decades removed from the launch of WM3.org. Make a life-giving gesture In the Bible Belt, the Satanic Panic took hold with a vengeance. The test results showed that no genetic material on the crime scene evidence was a match to Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley, reported the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The prosecutor would later say, There was a lack of physical evidence to tie anyone or anything to the crime scene, while the lead investigatorthe same one who told the press the case was an 11 out of 10would concede, Youve got a lot of circumstantial evidence is what youve got. None of the three believed that, but Echolss healthand the possibility that even if he survived, he would still be on death row should the fight for retrials failmade it an imperative. . Rollins not only gave interviews to keep the effort alive in the press, he organized a string of benefit shows and released an album featuring Iggy Pop and Chuck D, with proceeds going to the defense. It had been a long fight to clear their names, and the odds seemed better than ever. It has happened to a lot of people that just dont have the spotlight of a documentary, he says. It was also revealed in 2012 that Hobbs nephew allegedly told his friends, My Uncle Terry murdered those three little boys," and that the killings were a Hobbs family secret, according to WMC-TV. A hair found on one of the ligatures to bind the boys, however, was found to be consistent with the DNA of Hobbs, according to court documents obtained by Oxygen.com. They couldnt have been cooler, recalls Berlinger, who would go on to direct the 2004 documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster alongside Bruce Sinofsky. However, under pressure, leading questions, and scare tactics, Misskelley wove a contradictory story that first placed him at the crime scene as an eyewitness to the murders and then as an active participant. West Memphis is in the heart of the Bible Belt: just a two-hour drive from where, legend has it, the devil tuned Robert Johnsons guitar, in a state thats 46 percent evangelical Protestant. Although the Alford Plea set the West Memphis Three free, they are, at least in the eyes of the law, guilty, and therefore, the state of Arkansas is under no obligation to continue investigating the crimes at this time. His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. Paso Robles, California. Explore. A graveside service will be conducted on Wednesday, March 17 at Cloverdale Memorial Park beginning at 11am. He began his career in the plumbing business at a very young age, workingfor his . Family and friends can send flowers and/or light a candle as a loving gesture for their loved one. . People in West Memphis are going to tell their kids stories. Additionally, the judge in the original trialswho under Arkansas law presided under the requests for retrials in the years following the convictionshad been elected to the state Senate that December, meaning someone new and possibly more sympathetic would oversee the case. According to Griffis, black hair, black T-shirts, and black jeans were signs that a kid was in league with the devil. Last year, I noticed that Terry went missing. Also, law enforcement chose not to focus on the victims' families as the starting point of the investigation as is the norm. '", In 1999, a more mature Echols explained the comment. Its no surprise the juries found the prosecutions narrative compelling, Leveritt says: For them, the image of killer satanists headbanging to Metallica was more than plausible. Its something that Baldwin couldnt envision when he first agreed to let the documentarians interview him in jail in exchange for an honorarium, or even when Mojo played that VHS tape for him in 1997. Hobbs described what it was like the day the three walked free. Its evidence that Damien Echols attorneys wanted to do new DNA testing on. We made a promise early on that we would never pretend to be law enforcement or detectives, Sauls says. During the trials of Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols, Griffis drew tenuous links between circumstantial evidence, such as the killings taking place near the date of the pagan festival of Beltane. Berlinger contrasts this with the approach taken by Bakken, Sauls, and Co., who considered the truth sacrosanct and avoided rumor and innuendo in part because similar speculation helped convict the West Memphis Three. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. Like Misskelley in the first trial, Baldwin received a life sentence. I don't know if the other 2 did, but even if they did polygraphs aren't admissible in court. Investigators kept minimal notes and omitted pertinent details including criminal records. Echols is correct. Hold for Elkhart County. Terry. hangyermoon 2 yr. ago. That the slain boys were each 8 years-old was important because eight was a "witch's number." The Alford plea is a seldom-invoked and somewhat confusing legal maneuver, but the basics are fairly straightforward. Misskelley initially told police that the killings happened during the day; knowing that they actually occurred some time after dusk, the officers corrected him, helping him retrofit his story to the cases few known facts. Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie Hobbs. Covered in wounds, all three showed signs of having been beaten. So the minute youre done, you just want to know more. I think I introduced my dad to it because that was not his normal genre., Three Metallica songsOrion, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), and Call of Ktuluwould play throughout the documentary. Now a judgewho coincidentally works part time in the courtroom where Misskelley was convictedStidham spends time speaking to law students about the judicial system. Updated: 9:42 AM CDT June 11, 2019. No charges have been brought against Jacoby, and he has never been named a suspect by the West Memphis Police Department. When we were driving in the car a lot, wed play a lot of the Metallica album Master of Puppets, says Alex Sinofsky, who became a doctor instead of getting behind the camera himself. Theyve had several victories, including the case of Daniel Villegas, who was acquitted of capital murder in 2018 after a 25-year legal saga. In West Memphis, Hobbs worked as an ice cream delivery man and Hicks worked at a restaurant. Hobbs denied the accusation, saying that his family does have secrets, but none of them have to do with murder. February 27, 2023 (76 years old) View obituary. Quickly, however, he realized Berlinger and Sinofsky were taking a different approach. There are no events scheduled. It wasnt hard for him to imagine his teenage self ending up in Echolss situation. "I knew from when I was real small that people were going to know who I was," Echols said in 1994. We are sad to announce that on September 11, 2021 we had to say goodbye to Terry Hobbs of Sweetwater, Texas. He had been expecting a visitation, but was instead led to the prison chapel office, where inmates were typically brought only if someone close to them had died. At the request of West Memphis authorities, the two were picked up and questioned by Oceanside police. Two questions plagued the conservative, middle-class community: Why would anyone commit such a heinous act, and, more importantly, who? In this first confession, Miskelley often agreed to details suggested by the police or attributed to prior statements which he did not make. But I had to. - The West Memphis 3: Free (2012) . He says that while he was in the supermax prison in Varner, he would write letters trying to drum up support for not just himself, but also for other inmates he believed were wrongfully convicted. She said it was one of the highest-rated pieces they had. (WJHG) By Nikki Sheaks Published: Jul. Despite the best efforts of the police, dozens of volunteers, a search-and-rescue team, and a helicopter dispatched from nearby Memphis, Tenn., searchers came up empty handed. Its headlined by not only the films directors, but also Sheila Nevins, its executive producer and winner of 32 individual Emmy awards, more than any other person in history. Due to marital problems stemming from Stevies death, the couple divorced in 2004, reported CNN. He had always maintained he didnt commit the crimes, and outside the Varner Units walls, a growing chorus of activists and legal observers were arguing that same thing on his behalf. Although the bodies were discovered at 1:30 p.m., investigators didn't call the coroner until 3:58 p.m. By the time the coroner arrived, fly larvae were already present in the nostrils and eyes of the victims. Best selling books such as Lawrence Pazder's Michelle Remembers and disgraced evangelical comedian Mike Warnke's The Satan Seller fueled the madness with tales of ritual abuse and human sacrifice. The trio assumed that the convictions had already been overturned by the time Bakken received the screenerthis was a modern-day witch hunt, they thought, and surely the state of Arkansas had already corrected the course. Berlinger and Sinofsky, the latter of whom died in 2015 at age 58, were able to gain incredible and immediate access to seemingly everyone the case had touched: the families of the victims and the accused, the judge, the lead investigator, members of the community. (Maines briefly became a part of the story when Terry Hobbs, stepfather of another . Yet, Judge David Burnett accepted Griffis as an expert. Earlier this year, he told Action News 5 he welcomes new DNA testing. That came partially through the exposure they got through this film., But perhaps the best measure of Paradise Losts impact is the work being done by Baldwin today. In West Memphis, Hobbs worked as an ice cream delivery man and Hicks worked at a restaurant. Essentially, it allows the accused to assert their innocence while pleading guilty, conceding that the prosecution has an overwhelming amount of evidence to procure a conviction. Another hair found near the crime scene on a tree stump was found to be consistent with the DNA of Hobbs friend, David Jacoby, according to court documents obtained by Oxygen.com. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Terry Hobbs to show support. They werent telling me I was lying, even if they may have been saying that in their minds. I didnt want to stop with us being that close. The Paradise Lost cameras captured not only the defenses discussions, but the full testimony, in Misskelleys trial, of an expert on coerced confessions. A statement he made to the producers of Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills did little to help his public image. Branded the, What has never been definitively answered, however, is who committed the 1993 murders, and , Due to marital problems stemming from Stevies death, the couple divorced in 2004, reported, The test results showed that no genetic material on the crime scene evidence was a match to Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley, reported the, The West Memphis Police Department interviewed Hobbs, who was dismissive of the findings, claiming the hair could have been picked up during a visit to his home since the victim "played with our little boy regularly," according to the, "They said close to the crime scene because at one time I did walk near where they had found the kids with Terry Hobbs But I didn't wear hats back then, my hair could have blown around anywhere, Jacoby told Memphis NBC affiliate, A year after the DNA results were released, Hobbs sued Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines for defamation, claiming she implied he was a murderer on the bands website and at a 2007 rally, according to, In 2009, three witnesses filed affidavits claiming they saw Hobbs with the murdered boys the night they disappeared, contradicting Hobbs previous statements to police, according to. Classmates at Weaver Elementary School, the three were active in their Cub Scout troop and responsible enough to be trusted to roam their neighborhood without supervision. The consequences of that online campaign were ruinous: The person they targeted, a Mexican metal musician who worked under the name Morbid, was harassed into hiding. doesn't know how to teach the material and you will end up teaching yourself everything. March 8, 2021, Terry Hobbs passed away on March 8, 2021 in Boise, Idaho. Update: I was totally wrong. Years of solitary confinement and the abuse he said he suffered at the hands of prison guards had taken its toll. I spoke with one of the jurors, years later after the trials and convictions, and he said he had no doubt that people could throw their lot in with the devil and be commanded to do things that they wouldnt have done otherwisethat they have basically made the deal with the devil, Leveritt says. As part of the deal, they cannot file wrongful-conviction lawsuits, which both Berlinger and Baldwin say couldve cost the state tens of millions of dollars. But on that early morning in 1997, Jason Baldwin wasnt concerned with Berlinger and Sinofskys craft, or legal precedent, or crusading celebrities. The first being that boys were killed by someone they knew. He died on April 4, 2019 in Panama City Beach, Florida, USA. The obituary was featured in Idaho Press Tribune on March 13, 2021. Paradise Lost also led to a famous citizen-activist campaign championing the release of the three teens that caught on at the dawn of the Internet Age and would eventually pull in Eddie Vedder, Henry Rollins, and a whos who of the rich and famous. In 1994, Dr. Dale W. Griffis was a retired police officer who had embarked on a second career as a self-styled consultant on occult and cult-related crime. Like everyone else who was familiar with the case, they wanted to know who committed the crimes, but their main goal was advocacy, not using the opportunity to play investigators. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Self. Sauls says that the former Black Flag frontman was one of the few big names who dug deep into the evidence, wanting to learn as many details as he could about the case. Support came from unlikely corners: a classroom of kids who held a cookie sale that raised $30, local bands in Chicago who held a benefit show and sent $150. The West Memphis Police Department interviewed Hobbs, who was dismissive of the findings, claiming the hair could have been picked up during a visit to his home since the victim "played with our little boy regularly," according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Initially, Misskelley repeatedly denied having knowledge of the crime, aside from rumors that Damien Echols was involved.

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